Some Things Never Change
by The Steppy One
Summary: Set after 'Deathly Hallows'. A conversation I envisaged the trio having, however difficult the topic to discuss.


**Another one shot for you. Bit of trio love after DH. Enjoy:D**

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'You know, even after everything that happened tonight, I still feel the need to have severe words with you.'

I thought he was talking to me for a second before I realised he was staring straight at Harry.

It was obvious Harry wasn't sure whether Ron was being serious or not, the smile that was starting to form on his lips fading quickly. I'm a bit confused myself.

'Is this about Gin? Because I'm not messing her around, Ron, I promise you!'

His words had become a little frantic as his sentence came to completion.

'Why would it be about Gin? What's happened?'

'Ron,' I say quietly, 'stop winding him up. You know nothing's happened. There hasn't been time for anything to've happened!'

'You were winding me up?' Harry asked, too tired to get angry at his now smirking best friend.

'A bit, well, about my little sister anyway.'

Ron shifted in his seat. I've learned that means he feels self conscious about what he's going to say.

'If it's what you both want then, great, really.'

Harry smiled at Ron.

'Thanks.'

'But I still have to have severe words with you.'

I think I might know what this is about. I suppose it's best we talk about it now. Funny how my mouth has just gone dry. Thankfully the Gryffindor Common Room is fully stocked with Pumpkin Juice courtesy of Kreacher. At this point in time, I'm not going to complain about the plight of House Elves. There's time for that later.

Because we actually have a 'later'.

'You're not winding me up anymore, are you?' Harry asked quietly.

'No,' Ron replied.

He wasn't shuffling any more; he knew what he wanted to say and was determined to say it.

'Look, Harry, I only want to ask you this once and I promise you I won't ask you again, or talk about it again…unless you want to of course.'

'Er…okay, ask away.'

'Well, you didn't come and find us before…before you went into the forest.'

I suppressed my urge to not state that his words hadn't formed a question.

'That wasn't a question.'

Apparently I didn't need to.

'Okay, that was bizarre.' Ron said looking confused. He turned to me. 'Are you possessing him or something?'

I chuckled.

'No,' I replied, 'he's just avoiding answering the question…well, as Harry said, it wasn't actually a question, it was a statement.'

'Okay fine.'

He turned serious again. The smile slipped off my face.

'Why didn't you come and find us before you went into the forest?'

Harry swallowed. Ron shifted in his seat again.

'It's okay if you don't want to tell us, Harry,' I said quietly. 'We can't even imagine how it felt to know what you had to do and go and do it, but still, we thought…well, I'm not sure what we thought.'

Harry picked up his Butterbeer bottle from the table, took a sip and then cleared his throat. He shifted so he was leaning forwards, his elbows on his knees and his eyes staring at the bottle in his hands.

'If I'd come and found you before I went in, I'm not sure I'd've been able to do what I had to.'

If I'm honest with myself I think I knew that was what he was going to say.

He took another drink from the bottle.

'If I'd found you and spoken to you, you would have known something was wrong and you wouldn't have let it lie. You'd've known what I was about to do and I couldn't put you through that either. You would have tried to stop me, convinced me there was another way of doing things, and because I was scared and just wanted someone else to have to go through that, I would have listened. If that would have happened, then when we did finally figure out that there was no other way, it would have been so much harder to do what needed to be done. Plus, who knows what would've happened in the mean time. More people would have died and that would have been inexcusable.'

I didn't care that tears had fallen from my eyes. The two men in front of me had seen pain, torture, and death, a few tears weren't going to scare them.

'Please don't cry, Hermione,' Harry said quietly. He looked mortified. I had to smile; maybe tears _were_ scarier than facing death.

'Harry…'

Ron caught us both off guard.

'Er…I…when we saw you…we….we were…and then—' he sighed and turned to me. 'Can you form that into a proper sentence, please?'

Harry laughed.

'I think what Ron's trying to say is, that when we saw you being carried out of the Forest, we were devastated, but we were also unbelievably proud of you. We didn't know why, and we didn't know how, but we knew that you did it for us, for everyone, and we haven't actually said 'thank you' yet. So…thank you.'

'Yeah…thanks, mate, and all that Hermione said.'

Harry smiled and stood up, his arm extended to Ron. Ron took it and Harry pulled him from his chair. I watched as they hugged each other as if hanging on to each other for dear life. Tears fell from my eyes again, but this time of happiness. They had been so through much and were still the best of friends, we all were.

They pulled apart.

'Best if we stopped, mate, I think Hermione's getting jealous,' Ron said with a smirk.

'Of me, or you?'

'Oi!'

Harry's comment earned him a hit to the back of the head. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at Ron.

I walked forward and wrapped my arms around Harry and felt him hug me.

'Thank you,' I said again into his shoulder.

He pulled back.

'You know, you've said thank you to me, but I haven't said thank you to you. I wouldn't have got this far without the both of you, so…yeah, thanks.'

'Anytime, mate. Just…you know…if you could give us a bit of a break before you have us on anymore year long missions it would be much appreciated!'

'Will do!' Harry said with a grin.

It was then that we started giggling and then we were laughing like we hadn't in a long time. It was only when the portrait hole opened that we regained some composure.

'What's funny?' Neville asked as he walked over to us.

Ron managed to swallow his giggles so he could talk.

'The prospect of us going on another year long adventure!'

Neville looked puzzled. 'Er…okay.'

'Don't worry, Neville.' I said. 'It's just post-battle hysteria. It'll pass.'

Neville smiled and then he started giggling himself.

'What?' I asked.

'It's strange, something just occurred to me. When I was standing in front of Voldemort, I was scared and all, but I was prepared to stand there and take whatever he threw at me, but that, compared to standing in front of the famous Harry Potter, the brave Ronald Weasley and the ridiculously intelligent Hermione Granger and telling them they couldn't do what they were determined to do, was far more scary!'

'Okay, I know Hermione can be quite scary at times, especially when she gets that glint in her eye…'

I gave Ron a glare with that glint in my eye.

'but surely You-kno—…V-Voldemort was more scary than us three at eleven years old.'

I tried to continue glaring at Ron but just ended up grinning.

'No, it's like Dumbledore said, isn't it? Harder standing up to your friends than your enemies and all that. Voldemort was an evil bastard, defying him was easy, but giving you three a reason not to like me, well, that was – to an eleven year old who really wasn't sure of himself in any way – the hardest thing to do.'

I stepped closer to him.

'From what I've seen, that insecure Neville has disappeared for good.'

I stood up on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek before hugging him tightly.

'Thanks, Hermione,' he said into my hair.

I squeezed him tighter acknowledging his words.

'I don't scare you know, do I?'

Neville laughed and pulled back. 'No, but then again, I learned to nod and agree with you years ago, whereas him over there,' he nodded to where I knew Ron was still standing, 'needs a few more lessons in that!'

Harry and I laughed out loud, even Ron chuckled.

Harry walked over to Neville and I left them to have a chat.

I held my hand out to Ron and he walked towards me and took it. He pulled me into him and held me close.

'He's right, we would have wanted to stop him.' I nodded at Ron's words. 'He did the right thing, not coming to find us, as much as that seems wrong, I see why now, even though I think I knew deep down why he didn't. I just needed to know.'

He seemed to be struggling with his conscience, hence the justification.

'We both did, Ron, and Harry knows that.'

He nodded.

We stood holding each other, watching Harry and Neville talk quietly.

'You know,' Neville said as he looked around the Gryffindor common room. 'I know it's only been seven years, which, in the grand scheme of things isn't a great deal of time, but a lot of things have changed and will never be anywhere near the same again.'

Harry nodded but stopped when Ron's stomach rumbled loudly.

'Then again,' Neville said through a laugh, 'it's always reassuring to know that whatever happens, some things _never_ change.'

Well said, Neville. Well said.


End file.
